Florence, Italy: Renewing Water

Sometimes it’s amazing how the most mundane things can bring us out of our ‘shells.’ Whenever I’m adapting to new cultures, my style is to first observe and then emulate. I’m one who looks at different cultures and doesn’t dive right in but instead tries to find niches to which I can adapt. I’ve been doing this in Florence. Today, when I was thinking during my Siena trip about how I was interacting, I realized that something happened yesterday which forced me to ‘step into’ Florence.

When Brett (roommate) came to Italian class yesterday afternoon, he said that some of our neighbors and our landlady were in our apartment. He said there was water leaking through the walls and they were trying to fix it. I figured it wasn’t a problem and that they were taking care of it. When we got back after class, Brett was talking on the phone and went into the bedroom. It was me and the Italians, alone! Our landlady (whose name I found out is Adua (not sure that’s the spelling)) came up to me and starting talking really fast in Italian and was making all kinds of motions. She doesn’t speak any English, and my Italian is limited to an incredibly select group of words, so motions were what carried the conversation.

From what Brett had told me, I pieced together that something under our sink was leaking and they were fixing it. It turns out that one of my neighbors (Mustafah) below us, who I’d met before on the street, was working on it. Adua was so nice and was showing me that for 1.30 euros they were able to get the replacement joint and a bunch of teflon tape to carry the water past where it was leaking. Amazing! Mustafah spoke a few English words and he enjoyed joking (like trying to convince me he’d studied in New York — a questioning look got him laughing hysterically).

I told Jeremy (one of the guys from Accent) about it today on our trip and I realized that it was my first actual intercultural experience. Commercial interactions, no matter how challenging they may be, aren’t actually communication. They don’t require anything other than currency and finger-pointing. Trying to discover how they’re rerouting what I now consider renewing water, however, takes facial expressions, takes insecurity, and takes willingness to break out of the shell. I’ve known for over a year that I’d have to do it eventually in Italy; it’s ironic that it took this long. Water cleanses; water removes; water renews.